The Content Marketer’s Secret Dictionary

The Lingo We Use at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

May 24, 2016

If you have ever overheard a group of teenagers talking, you know how a shared private language can bring people together. Half of what they say is incomprehensible to me: It’s all “totes” and “adorbs” and “SMH.”

I’m not picking on the kids these days, though. We had our own private language back in the day, when “bad” meant “good,” “dope” meant “really good,” and “dude” meant just about anything. We were rad, tubular, gnarly, and never grody to the max. Every group of people has its own secret dictionary, which serves both to reinforce the group’s bonds and confuse outsiders.

At LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, we have our own set of terms that everyone on the team immediately understands. But it’s not just about team bonding; our secret dictionary serves as shorthand for major parts of our content marketing strategy.

To help you talk about big content marketing ideas in a funky new way, here are a few pages from the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions secret dictionary. Use these terms to delight your coworkers, confuse everyone else, and pursue total content marketing domination.

The Content Marketer’s Secret Dictionary

Big Rock Content Strategy: A content marketing strategy that starts with a single massive content asset that seeks to be the definitive guide to its topic. Big Rocks ideally include influencer participation for added credibility and additional value (See the Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to Content Marketing, for example). The strategy is to repurpose the Big Rock in smaller content assets (see Turkey Slices), which lead traffic to the Big Rock, inform your audience, and fill out your editorial calendar.

Chocolate Cake: This is a fan favorite category from the blogging food groups, which was originally coined by HubSpot’s Rick Burns in 2009. Everybody needs something sweet every now and then, so we make it a point to create light-hearted, easily digestible content on a regular basis. These can be amusing videos, graphics, stories, memes… whatever visitors can easily sink their teeth into.

Fruit Roll-up Content Strategy: The opposite of a Big Rock. Instead of starting with a big asset, you publish a series of smaller content pieces, then roll them up together to create a bigger piece. Our Hybrid Marketer eBook is a good example of a fruit roll-up. The concept of a fruit roll-up we borrowed with permission from the inimitable Hugh MacLeod.

Full Meal Deal: Everything that goes into a content campaign: Big Rock, turkey slices, social messaging and image assets, amplification strategy, lead gen email, the works. Named after the legendary dinner combo at the Dairy Queen growing up—the Full Meal Deal was way better than the regular combo, because it included a sundae. Which is a good reminder to always have something sweet and fun in your content mix (see Chocolate Cake).

Kick the Hornet’s Nest: To activate one’s own social network and the social networks of influencers. Not a negative thing, regardless of how it sounds. Think less “angry stinging death boiling out of a nest” and more “Starting a buzz that can spread throughout social media.”

Secret Sauce: The little something extra that you add to content to make it special. It’s a bit of personality, something creative, something that only you or your company would think of doing. It’s what turns bland content into work people are eager to read and share.

Spitballing: Brainstorming without borders. A brainstorm session is meant to generate and evaluate ideas, ultimately promoting some and rejecting others. In a spitballing session, people can throw out ideas in a no-judgment, consequence-free environment. It’s a great way to get at wild, wildly successful ideas that wouldn’t have made it through a brainstorm.

Turkey Slices: Think of your Big Rock as a Thanksgiving turkey (and never mind the mixed metaphor). The goal for a Big Rock strategy is to get all the meat you can from the bones, and then use the bones to make soup. Publish chapters of the Big Rock as blog posts. Interview your Big Rock influencers on your podcast. Make infographics that highlight key takeaways. Turkey slices provide value while they attract people to your Big Rock.

These are just a few of the entries in our secret dictionary, concepts that drive the bulk of our content marketing strategy at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions.

Want to participate in a future “Chocolate Cake” post? Does your team have its own lingo? Let’s make our industry lexicon more interesting. Tweet @LinkedInMktg with your own secret dictionary entries using the hashtag #MKTGLingo.